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Dogs know when they don't know
In the field of comparative psychology, researchers study animals in order to learn about the evolution of various traits and what this can tell us about ourselves. At the DogStudies lab at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, project leader Juliane Bräuer studies dogs to make these comparisons. In a recent study published in the journal Learning & Behavior, Bräuer and colleague Julia Belger, now of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, explore whether dogs have metacognitive abilities -- sometimes described as the ability to "know what one knows" -- and in particular whether they are aware of what information they have learned and whether they need more information.
To test this, the researchers designed an apparatus involving two V-shaped fences. A reward, either food or a toy, would be placed by one researcher behind one of the two fences while another researcher held the dog. In some cases, the dog could see where the reward was placed, while in others the dog could not. The researchers then analyzed how frequently the dogs looked through a gap in the fence before choosing an option. The question was whether, like chimps and humans, the dog would "check" through the gap when he or she had not seen where the reward was placed. This would indicate that the dog was aware that he or she did not know where the reward was -- a metacognitive ability -- and would try to get more information before choosing a fence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 22 2018, @02:23PM (2 children)
Dogs are exactly what you get when you select an animal for tens of thousands of years to amplify personnality traits that humans find preferable:
They are stupid. They are noisy. They are totally subservient. They are genetically compeled to love you absolutely and unconditionnaly even if you're the most digusting piece of shit in the universe and you treat them like dirt.
Exactly what the typical human being would look for in a companion.
(Score: 1) by Goghit on Thursday November 22 2018, @06:22PM
Allow me to introduce you to Airdales. None of the above is true. Interesting dogs, but I'd never have another one. I prefer my cats to be cat sized, at least then I can pick them up when they're being uncooperative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @01:56PM
No, sorry, they are not. They have a heirarchical map in their heads of their 'pack', there will be both an alpha male and alpha female slot in that map that the dog will either 'inhabit' or defer to, how the dog reacts to anyone else in the pack 'map', depends on the dogs view of the relative positions in the hierarchy.
Anyone not in the 'pack', then the dog will react to you as it sees fit, if it chooses to obey you once or twice, you cannot assume it's because it sees you as it's lord and master, there's a degree of testing involved in dog - human interactions, they're very good at figuring out how well disposed 'strangers' are to them, and, by extension, their pack (which is why they'll rapidly lose any interest in you once they figure out you're not a threat...or have food...or are food ) despite this, unfortunately your point
is true in a lot of cases, that's thanks to these shitheads firmly establishing their alpha pack position in the poor dog's mind early on, no matter how friendly you are to such an abused dog, they'll still go running to the shitheads that abuse them when they see or smell them, from bitter experience of a couple of rescued dogs, it can take years to break this conditioning.(Of course, there is a simple method, that is to beat the fucking crap out of the current 'alpha' thereby becoming the new 'alpha' in the abused dog's map, satisfying as this is, unfortunately the poor dog feels duty bound by pack loyalty to come to the defence of these fuckers..)
Btw, I'm mainly a cat person (and have several decades worth of scars to prove it), but have been around dogs all my life.